Mandukya_Upanishad

THE MYSTERY OF DREAM AND SLEEPHiraṇyagarbaThe first phase of the Ātman, as the wakingconsciousness, has been explained. Internal to the wakingconsciousness, and pervading the waking consciousness,there is a subtler function of this very same consciousness,which is subjectively known as the dream-consciousness, ortaijasa, and universally known as hiraṇyagarba, or theCosmic Subtle Consciousness. This is the theme of thedescription in the next mantra of the MāndūkyaUpanishad, beginning with svapnasthānah, etc.That which has dream as its abode is svapnasthānah.That which is aware only of the internal and not of theexternal is antah-prājña. That which has seven limbs issaptānga. That which has nineteen mouths isekonavimśatimukha. That which absorbs only the subtleinto its being is praviviktabhuk. This is taijasa, the secondphase, the second foot of the Ātman.Now we are in the dream consciousness, the world ofsubtle perception. We regard, usually, dreams to beconsequences of waking perception, and it is held that theobjects seen in dream are psychological rather thanphysical. We come in contact with real objects in thewaking state, but we contact only imagined things in thedream state. While there is actual satisfaction, actualpleasure and actual pain in the waking world, there is animagined pleasure, imagined satisfaction and imaginedpain in the dream world. While the objects of the wakingworld are not our creation, the objects of the dream worldare our own mental creation. This is the usual opinion that